Comparatively few of us knew Andrew Breitbart. Not many knew Davy Jones either, of whom it may be said sang tunes “that were a hit before your mother was born.” But as Shakespeare noted, the death of princes stirs the world because it displaces some collective memory in millions. There is a disturbance in the force, to mix metaphors. That may sound trite, but it’s true.
The notice taken of the recently dead is really about the living reflecting on how it changes things for themselves. Among Breitbart’s enemies, there will be relief; among his allies, dismay; amid the rest who simply knew him as a public figure, a little more awareness of fragility of life. But the dead are beyond our cares. They have done their bit. The Big Government website quotes Breitbart on the the joy he felt at bearding lions:
I love my job. I love fighting for what I believe in. I love having fun while doing it. I love reporting stories that the Complex refuses to report. I love fighting back, I love finding allies, and—famously—I enjoy making enemies.
AdvertisementThree years ago, I was mostly a behind-the-scenes guy who linked to stuff on a very popular website. I always wondered what it would be like to enter the public realm to fight for what I believe in. I’ve lost friends, perhaps dozens. But I’ve gained hundreds, thousands—who knows?—of allies. At the end of the day, I can look at myself in the mirror, and I sleep very well at night.
He found he had a talent. The sheer aggressiveness of Breitbart’s onset often unmanned his critics, who were accustomed to deference and hesitance from conservatives. Instead he paid them back in their own coin and turned the old paradigm of conservative and leftist debate from asymmetrical to a symmetric media warfare. They hated him for fighting just like them.
God bless Andrew Breitbart!
Amd may God bless you, Wretchard.
The right’s warriors die young, are few, and are rarely replaced.
Andrew Breitbart will be as sorely missed as was Lee Atwater.
RIP, Andrew.
What a shock this news was this morning.
wretchard, thank you for your words. Andrew had a spirit all could see, but could hardly be described, but we can describe how we saw him. Amen.
Instead he paid them back in their own coin and turned the old paradigm of conservative and leftist debate from asymmetrical to a symmetric media warfare. They hated him for fighting just like them.
A perfect herald of the man’s importance to the political conversation.
Damn. Just. . .damn.
Never Surrender
The Patrick O’Brian novels quote Admiral Lord Nelson as saying, “Nevermind tactics, always go at ‘em!”
Breitbart was a one-man dreadnaught, distressing the left, and destroying its trade. What a cruise he had!
Andrew Breitbart has gone to glory. May his family find comfort in the assurances of God and a life well lived.
It is now up to us, in the best way we know how to lift the standard and follow Andrew’s example.
RIP and Godspeed, Andrew.
W: “The True Believer’s certitudes are really a mask worn to conceal an absolute lack of faith; their dogma a brittle facade to keep the vacuum from rushing out. By contrast, real faith requires doubt; a doubt which makes it impossible to assign ourselves the power to arrange other people’s lives.”
The true-believing certitude of Medieval Christian Kings and Bishops, and the true-believing certitude of Islamists, and the true-believing certitude of Marxists was and is “a mask worn to conceal an absolute lack of faith…” They had and have no doubt, or a veneer of no doubt, which made and makes it possible to assign themselves “the power to arrange other people’s lives.”
A very serious loss. Breitbart was desperately needed on the Right. I wish we had a thousand more like him, and maybe even one or two of them in the Senate (imagine that).
I hope his media empire will pass into the hands of a true believer. Otherwise, I would not be surprised at all if a year from now “Big Government” is a web site all about the glories of Big Government.
Sad news. Andrew we hardly knew you…
God bless.
Many of those hostile to the left have died young.
Many of those hostile to the left have died young.
Probably the aggravation kills them. I feel that way myself a lot of the time.
“The sheer aggressiveness of Breitbart’s onset often unmanned his critics, who were accustomed to deference and hesitance from conservatives”.
Day after day I pray for a conservative politician to stand and challenge the words and deeds of the left. To call out their falsehoods & destructive legislation. Who will take up the mantle?
RIP Andrew B.
Breitbart’s executors should release those promised videos of Barack Obama’s early days. Breitbart in his recollection of the dinner with Ayers in circumstances that can only be described as opulent, says that Bill was a kindred spirit in that Ayers believed that changing the culture changed everything. Electoral politics was merely its consequence.
There is in that observation a suggestion that Ayers could see that Breitbart could see and therefore things which others might miss he might notice. And in that regard the videos ought to be released if only because people may imagine some connection between them and Breitbart’s death. The last thing you want to do is turn Breitbart’s demise into a subliminal message where none may exist.
I think Andrew would not have wanted his passage to dampen the spirits of those who come behind. The Breitbart cocktail wants us stirred, not shaken.
Furthermore, in the unlikely event there is some connection (beyond happenstance) then it’s best to get the stuff out from under. Tucker Carlson called the meeting with Ayers “a Potemkin dinner” and the scene reminded me of those verbose set pieces in a John Le Carre novel where people appear to be ruminating about nothing in particular yet with an intensity that suggested their lives depended upon it.
The past is particularly explosive for those whose life is a legend; men who are what people think they are but are nothing in themselves. The most surprising thing about such men is that they literally lose track of what they were at a given time. I would not be surprised if Ayers was interested in discovering what Andrew Breitbart thought of him, that he might know what facets of his legend were known in AB’s circles.
The way to deal with legends is to introduce each of them to each other. Andrew had an intuitive understanding of just how destructive the facts could be, because they stood at such amazing variance with such “facts” as we knew. If one wanted to describe the Breitbart model of journalism it could be summarized in one phrase: treat the Left as if it were a conspiracy.
The dinner with Ayers offered a glimpse into something behind the facade of the Man of the People. A Potemkin dinner indeed.
There are no words. Maybe these.
To paraphrase,
“What we owe you is beyond evaluation.”
You shall be missed.
Goodness, what a loss. Andrew had the courage to get up on a stage and say, “they’re a bunch of totalitarian freaks.” Then he’d back it up. Few seem to have that fight and fearless quality. He was really just beginning to come into his own, too. He never looked or sounded better than the last few times I saw him. What a stunning and tragic twist of fate!
He was a great warrior. They should do an autopsy. Sorry, I don’t trust the kind of people who he was up against.
How very depressing. Breitbart will be impossible to replace. This one really shouldn’t have happened.
Both of these men had one of those aha! momments which launched them into careers they loved.
For Davy Jones it was by chance that he appeared on the Ed Sullivan show as a member of a musical cast on the very night that the Beatles made their first appearence. That did it for him. He knew what he wanted and got there.
For Breitbart it was his first viewing of the Drudge Report while surfing the newfangled internet that opened up a whole new world for him. I think those momments of epiphany that lead someone like Breitbart or Jones to their destiny are common but often unrecognized.
We have had much discussion about the education bubble, collapse of the eurozone, and rising unemployment among young people. Many of these young people will walk right by their momment in this environment. It is one thing to lack goals, if you keep your eyes open one will find you. It is another thing to lack the confidence to get in the saddle and ride out when it does.
You once thought of me,
As a white knight on his steed.
Now you know how happy I can be.
Woh, and our good times starts and end,
Without dollar one to spend.
But how much, baby, do we really need?
Cheer up, sleepy Jean.
Oh, what can it mean,
To a daydream believer,
And a homecoming queen?
It’s a great loss. RIP Andrew. We need many more like Andrew.
OT, there are reports that a saudi pipeline has been blown up. http://www.blindbatnews.com/2012/03/…3…saudi…blow-up…pipeline/11258
18. Harry
Reposted from another PJ Media thread where there were some conspiracy theories in full bloom and in no way to accuse Harry of being paranoid, I think that:
“Andrew Breitbart died suddenly. This is a sad loss for conservatives. Wacky, paranoid, unfounded conspiracy theories about his death being a murder, simply turn his passing into a juvenile parlour game. Breitbart deserves more respect than that.”
Andrew Breitbart showed how effective direct personal engagement of lefties with undiluted conservative arguments can be. We should all put a little bit of Breitbart in some lefty’s day.
Which brings us to a third character in the news: Peter Gleick.
I’m still in disbelief. Was he alone when he died? why? @#18 Harry. I second the motion. I don’t know if anything can explain how this happened, but we’ve got to try to understand it.
I hope his media empire will pass into the hands of a true believer.
And I hope it does not. True believers are more Peter Gleick than Andrew Breitbart, who had enough skepticism to see through flimflam, and enough guts to call it as he saw it, despite all the forces of PC arrayed against him and the rest of us. After all, he’d seen the Huffington Post from the inside.
He was a man.
as Shakespeare noted, the death of princes stirs the world because it displaces some collective memory in millions.
Or as Shakespeare would have noted, with Star Wars reference, if he had been subjected to 16 or more years of a modern education.
Breitbart’s excellent advice to Sarah Palin was: being a politician is not as substantial as being a cultural power. Winning an election is one thing, a lesser thing, than becoming a right wing version of Oprah Winfrey.
My sympathy to Breitbart’s wife and family.
No one will replace him but… Andrew showed us the way. The libs are so use to us being in the prone position while arguing with them (and the fact that they “have” the media), we cowed in response. Andrew noticed we were always on defense; no more my friend. Once he showed us liberals fall apart if they have to defend themselves, their issue, or their ideology, it should be just a matter of time. It is time to go on offense.
The key question to be asked of liberals with every response we give is…Where did you get that idea from? It will inevitably be Marx, Hitler, Stalin, Engels, Mao, or Lenin (maybe Bismark, but they aren’t that aware), and if they are unaware we should point out who’s idea that really was, forcefully!
I just finished Liberal Fascism; Jonah Goldberg. It is all laid out there.
Most libs don’t want to do the 1984 Orwell fascism by the states boot on your neck-forever!! It is more like Huxley’s; Brave New World, where the state hugs you to death with fascism that tells you what toilet, and what light bulbs please mother earth the most. How much better things would be if you just go along. Keep Breitbarts legacy going-even if you lose friends; it matters.
Harry @ 18:
The LA Coroner will do an investigation, which I take to mean an autopsy. But it kinda depends on how thorough the investigation is, unless the cause of death is obvious and unequivocal (e.g. total occlusion L main coronary artery). Remember Georgi Markov, the obscure Bulgarian dissident murdered by ricin in London, 1978? One does not need to be an Archduke to be assassinated.
Here’s to the happy warrior. We feel cheated to have lost him and grateful to have had him. May we, his admirers and his allies, live out our own lives with the integrity and vigor that he made his calling card before following in his turbulent wake.
Rolling Stone has a piece called Andrew Breitbart: Death of a Douche. One of its commenters says that in case anyone is offended, it’s only because they lack the brains to see that they should have been calling him a douchebag in the first place.
It perfectly captures the feeling of invincible superiority and moral entitlement that is the Left’s by right. “I can insult you and if you think you’re being insulted that’s because you’re too stupid to realize that I’m really so sophisticated that you should never disagree with me.”
Got news for you buddy. Soon you’ll be broke and you can whisper that to the two quarters you’ve been rubbing together so they’d mate. Breitbart understood that on one level there was no point arguing with such people. While most of us would say, “of course they couldn’t have meant him any harm”, he knew I think that of course they meant him harm. They were born to mean even themselves harm and nothing could change that.
It was this knowledge — and the courage to act on it — that characterized Breitbart. Where most people saw a discussion, he saw a war. But he understood too that it wasn’t a conflict you could win by conking other people on the head. There were too many of them for that.
This war will be won by setting out a meme that people can rally around after the Left blows itself to pieces. Which it will, because they’re hell bent on it. Don’t waste your time trying to play Cassandra. Just put the alternative meme out there and get the hell out of Dodge before she goes.
Did you ever wonder what happens to people when a tyranny, even a mental tyranny, falls? They don’t die. All the guys in Eastern Europe who believe in the Stasi, in the Party, in the Nazis for the most part survived. All the guys who believed in Marcos were still there the next day. Nobody went after them. It was their tinpot god that died.
They themselves, like that commenter at Rolling Stone, just kept crawling around after the Fall as if nothing ever happened, never feeling any guilt, already self-righteous, and perhaps ready to argue they knew the truth all along. The world is full of those types. And will be forever.
Fighting the Left is really about wrecking their meme. Disrespecting it. You can be civil to the individuals in the Left; perfectly polite in fact. It is their god you must laugh at. This was why Breitbart could never be forgiven. In him they saw a Fallen Angel, someone who but for his lack of belief might have been one of them. I think Ayers saw that much in him.
But then Ayers wasn’t looking to see Breitbart. He was more interested, as such people always are, in what Breitbart may have seen in him. If Breitbart hadn’t died himself, how would he think about his own death?
Redundant comment deleted
Breitbart was a master at ridiculing the lame pretentious fools who make up the left. (I guess Mr. Fernandez said that in a much more eloquent way than I). We need to engage them on every hand but hold them up for sheer laughter and mockery. “Rolling Stone” magazine? How utterly passe, 60′s douchebaggery at its worst.
We are all Andrew Breitbart.
“It was their tinpot god that died.”
Back circa 1990 I laughed out loud at a piece I read. A couple, Americans, losers, or at best mediocures, just could not get ahead in the USA. So in the 70′s with some fanfare, being minor celebrities as a result, declared themselves to be Communists and moved to the workers’ paradises of Eastern Europe.
And in the late 80′s the place started to fall apart. Or at least Communism did. So they moved from one former Eastern Bloc country to another, looking for their paradise. East Germany, then Czechlovokia and then Romania and then Bulgaria. And about as soon as they settled down somewhere else it came unzipped as well. Not sure if they even bothered with the USSR. Capitalism was chasing them around the world. Will we see a reverse boatlift to Cuba? I hope so!
Very sorry and shocked to hear about Andrew Breitbart. But he truly showed the way. He is gone but what he showed us lives on. RIP – and Fire for Effect!
A caller on the Michael Savage show just made an interesting observation. To paraphrase:
“If the Obama tapes get released, Breitbart died of natural causes. If they don’t get released, he was whacked.”
Let’s see what happens next.
A few months ago a burly man accosted me in the doorway of a local restaurant. “Is that your car outside?” he asked. “Yes it is,” I replied. “Why do you ask?” “It is so unusual to see a Gadsden Flag sticker on a car in Brentwood,” he said. “You look so familiar,” I said. “Do I know you?” “My name is Andrew Breitbart,” he replied. “Great to meet you. You are one of my heroes,” I said. And with that we parted.
His loss is especially significant and poignantly painful. We can say we are all Andrew Breitbart now, but losing the real and original is still devastating and, because I believe that men, more than historical trends, make the key difference, losing the genuine Breitbart is tragic.
And to his family, and especially to his children, go all our prayers. May they find comfort in his good name and in his brave deeds.
when I grow up I want to be Andrew Breitbart.
We are ALL OVER this on our blog Common Cents. May you Rest in Peace Brave Warrior!!
Common Cents
http://www.commoncts.blogspot.com
Rolling Stone has a piece called Andrew Breitbart: Death of a Douche.
Geez
Louise
Rolling Stone published Hunter S. Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing On the Campaign Trial 1972″, and that was great stuff, HST’s liberal leanings then were still healthy, the world was different back then, and HST in his prime was one of a kind. To the best of my knowledge, Rolling Stone never found an interesting voice in politics after that. And now this. Wow. So, Nancy Pelosi is only a bellweather after all, and Harry Reid, and lipstick on a pig Obambus himself.
Elrond himself never had to see the overall world so threatened with degeneration, even after the magic faded. Of course he left town ahead of the worst of it, I guess. Wait while I Google for the Grey Havens.
C.S. Lewis did see this alternative, gibbering hell on Earth brought on as progress by those who did not honor heaven. And he said, you cannot lose your soul by any action THEY impose. But really.
–
RWE @ 35: And in the late 80′s the place started to fall apart. Or at least Communism did. So they moved from one former Eastern Bloc country to another, looking for their paradise.
Reminds me of this poor couple back in the 1980s who looked for a place to hide out from the world and chose this obscure island in the South Atlantic with nothing there but a few sheep, … just before war broke out for those same Falkland Islands.
Roger Zelazny in his Amber series has it that if you want to create your own world, you can do it wherever you stand. It’s not easy, in fact it’s virtually impossible and will generally kill you if you try, but it has been done, and might be again. I learned a small version of that long ago.
Yet, don’t we all just want to call Scotty, “Beam me up, there is no intelligent life left on the planet.”
–
b @ 37: It’s For The Children
#31 wretchard
“But then Ayers wasn’t looking to see Breitbart. He was more interested, as such people always are, in what Breitbart may have seen in him.”
wasn’t that how Mao went out, wondering what the world was saying about him?
36. peterike
My initial feelings on this was either hoax or something more sinister. Now Drudge is reporting a bomb squad is at Rush Limbaugh’s house. Whether these are a series of coincidences or worse; does anyone here think the Left isn’t capable of acting this sinister? When do we arrive in The Three Conjectures territory?
Brietbart’s family may need some help. Politico is reporting that Shirley Sherrod’s defamation lawsuit against Breitbart is going to continue with the target being his estate. Levin is on it. Unfortunately via Pigford, Sherrod likely has significant resources to grind the family to dust via Lawfare unless they get some help from the Good Guys. Link follows. Cheers -
http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2012/03/shirley-sherrods-suit-against-andrew-breitbart-likely-116078.html
Andrew must have been a Groucho fan, Groucho attacked fascism with humor as well.
Very sad that he died so young with such a young family.
Andrew was adopted
-but did not want any contact with his biological parents
This was a mistake– as so much illness is genetically determined.
He may have learned about a genetic propensity to heart disease if he had talked with his biological parents.
God Speed, brother.
Your message and our admiration of you transcends time and bridges any distance.
Breitbart outed the liberals. Let;s continue his work and hammer the living s*** out of liberals and their lies, 24/7/365.
The fiction behind the The Monkees is a great lesson in itself. Farce that they were, their many achievements are arguably worthless… yet they were “unarguably” #1 for a time, selling a simplified (hollow?) message that was completely opposite of what made them successful.
As for Mr. Breitbart, I respectfully accept that he has moved on to another dimension… Why shouldn’t I?
Andrew’s passing brought tears to my eyes .. the first site I went to this morning was Big Government and I was shocked to see R.I.P Andrew Breitbart… I was stunned.
His passing is sad, he was indeed a unique man, with a warriors heart .. but after reflecting on his death, I think it will draw many more people to him … because the left hated him so, and there is so much disinformation, I’m sure many people will investigate, because of the hubub surrounding his passing.. and they will be impacted by his quest for truth and justice in our society and government.
As Jesus told his grieving followers: “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto Me.”
I hope to see you again Andrew.
I’ve been sad and preoccupied all day. I mourn Andrew Breitbart. I mourn Christopher Hitchens. Hell, I still mourn Michael Kelly. I hate this.
And I want to thank everybody on the left for staying entirely in character and reacting to his untimely death just as we expected and Andrew knew they would. They couldn’t have come up with a better tribute. He regrets, I’m sure, that he couldn’t be here to re-tweet all the vitriol.
I asked God for a response to why good die young.
Here is what came.
A question for God
Lord:
Why do the good die young?
Why do evil monsters
die in their beds and
not in a roadside ditch?
It’s not fair.
It’s not right.
Why so short?
Such a loss.
My beloved:
Billy Graham lives at 93 &
wonders why he isn’t home.
Jesus dead at 33 as Holy sacrifice.
Richer life than any ever lived.
You think life’s secret tis
to live long & die in bed.
True blessed life lives life fully
whatever gift of time is given.
Your problem is perception
of time and reward.
100 years is less of eternity
than planck’s limit is to you.
Your time here is short.
Live life to the fullest.
Then join Me my beloved
in joyful eternal bliss.
© Presbypoet 3-1-12
Goodbye, Andrew. I will miss your snark, your acuity, your ability to fight the good fight.
“Only the good die young.” And that says a hell of a lot about how we thought of you. Sleep well, you’ve earned your rest.
I smell bad fish here. Andrew Breitbart was on the cusp of his greatest coup, the release of several old documents and films, on Barack Obama during the 1980s, which would finally enlighten us a little about who Obama really is and who his handlers have always been. Hopefully, this expose will continue and be published by Breitbart’s hopefully courageous associates. Suffice it to say that I believe that his death could have been the result of foul play. I hope to God I am wrong about my gut feeling this time, but there it is.
In this game for America’s future, Andrew was like a great head coach who saw how the refs (media) weren’t calling the holds, clipping, twelve men on the field, etc. and would throw the red challenge flag.
If we weren’t down by twenty points with less than three minutes to go perhaps the sense of urgency wouldn’t be so great. Greece was lost to the statists and witness the celebrations: riots, mayhem, and whatever follows.
We need more like Andrew who’ll go toe-to-toe with the left, get in their face and throw the flags. He’ll be missed very much in this regard. But, if we’re going to win this thing, we have to get after their quaterback- the guy who hasn’t been sacked, yet. Two guys- one in the Senate and one in the House- need to be benched. Our defensive line will get to him if we all do our parts this year. They’ll have a time trying to stop $5 gas and 9% unemployment. Then, it’s our turn.
Ref: 36 and 43, I feel you have hit the nail on the head. I personnaly doubt that this film/document drop will ever see the light of day. Huge gun show in town, Lakeland, this weekend, originally did not plan to go. Now I will with a full wallet and a hunger for self preservation.
“that were a hit before your mother was born.”
you youngsters make me laugh.
I’m hearing a lot from the left that he was very foul mouthed. I never noticed that.
Is this just an attempt by some to dismiss him as an intellectual lightweight, due to his use of profanity?
I thought he did a great job and he will be missed.
This cheered me up…
And I did managed to catch Davy Jones and the Monkees on tour last summer. Their songs are a good cure for depression too.
Thanks for this post.
Breitbart could simply shout out and longer than his opponents—that’s how he won arguements.
I heard about his death. Then I poked around and found out about a ricin bust, I believe it was in Las Vegas, a couple days before he passed.
I don’t like having these thoughts I have now. Should I be even happier I took up handloading?
to No Mo -
Ricin unlikely agent. Derived from castor beans (my brother was given castor oil to get him to empty out his digestive tract for kidney exams as kid) Castor oil used as lubricant in WWI aircraft – spray from leaks caused many pilots inconvenience of severe nausea while trying to land (so stories say…)
Ricin interferes with protein digestion / synthesis metabolic processes; most prominent symptom severe diarrhea, so victims die of dehydration & shock.
It is to be hoped that the L.A. medical examiner’s office is not vulnerable.
Let’s not forget Ron Brown.
48. Baobo
Me too. Have been reviewing and listening.
Interesting fact. I’m a Believer was written by Niel Diamond.
I do not know anyone who does not like that song.
Dont let the door hit you in the ass on your way out blowfart!!
Super Lib….
What a class act. Your mother would be proud
#64. You are a punky retro Communist, I says.
Breitbart just may be our Obi-Wan Kenobi. More powerful in the afterlife than in this life. There are rumblings that his Obama tapes will come out in a week. I wonder if he had a “dead hand switch” to trigger other releases as well. One of his last tweets was bragging to someone about come juicy stuff to come down the pipe soon.
“The good die first.
And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust
Burn to the socket.” William Wordsworth
God bless you, Andrew, and your loving family. You’ve given us all strength, and we will not let you down, but pick up the banner to march on.